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PIPEs Information Package

All learning activities in the IPE curriculum must be interprofessional, according to the definition of the World Health Organization (2010).

Interprofessional education (IPE) is education that occurs when two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes. Professional is an all-encompassing term that includes individuals with the knowledge and/or skills to contribute to the physical, mental and social well-being of a community.

This differs from multi-professional education where students from various professions may be learning together, but not from each other and their professional perspectives. The points system was developed as a two-phase project. A modified Delphi technique was employed to develop a list of the key components of an IPE learning activity. The Delphi is a decision-making process that uses expert opinion, gathered anonymously, under the guidance and direction of a facilitator. Using the Delphi process, an expert panel was asked to select key criteria applicable to the IPE curriculum. The initial round list was generated containing an amalgamation of all the ideas suggested. The list, 27 criteria, was then distilled down to 11 distinct criteria. During the second round the panel were requested to rank them in order of importance, the results of which are noted in Table 1.

3. Facilitators from different professions and educated to provide IPE

4. Explicit IPE learning outcomes

5. Debriefing period after IPE learning activity

6. Minimum of three professions involved

7. Case-based learning

8. Frequency of sessions (many interactions across length of training)

9. Students are within similar levels of their professional programs

10. IPE learning assessment

11. Length of session

The second phase involved the Centre for Interprofessional Education (CIPE), formerly Office of Interprofessional Education (OIPE), Core Competency and Points Working Group (CCPWG) taking this information and applying it to the University of Toronto’s IPE curriculum in the form of a points system. Through the CCPWG meetings and with the assistance of a biostatistician, the 11 criteria from the modified Delphi were carefully analyzed and eight items were selected for final inclusion in the points system. The three criteria that were removed were ranked lowest. Their removal was also a result of redundancy or their use elsewhere within the curriculum. The remaining criteria were then divided evenly into two different categories: Process and Content. The Process Category involves criteria that describe how the learning occurs within the learning activity. Content Criteria refer to what will be learned.